The Presa Canario Dog: It's true origin Manuel Curtó Gracia La Laguna - Tenerife 1991
QUALITIES OF THE PRESA CANARIO DOG
The old Presa Canario Dog
resemble in
the physical and the psychical thing to that amount of
dogs of presa that have proliferated in the last time (three-four years)? No. So, directly, said me days
ago an old dog fighter of Tenerife.
Those dogs, the traditional presas,
those of the land, were more serious, less friends of
games, much more distrusted with the strangers. And they
were quiet, of little barking, and its bark was something
as well as cavernous, deep. And they did not bite without
true reason. Its simple presence and its snore were more
than sufficient to dissuade any stranger. And with the
dogs was not a joke. It did not respect nor to those of
the house, for that reason the hunters had their huntings
dogs outside the reach of the presas, and the same thing
is possible to say of the zatos -small dogs of a hand
span without defined breed-. Many lawsuits between
neighbors and families were motivated by this peculiar
behavior of the presa.
Those Presas Canario Dog hold up an amount
of sticks without grumble. And was a frightful adversary.
Santos El Verga (from La Espernza, Tenerife) told me that
in certain occasion was in the kitchen trajinando
(bustling), and El Valiente (his dog of presa) was
lying down at
the door. When he went to exit, the dog, without moving,
without blinking, began to snore, like saying him,
"you, do not bother that I am well here". But
Santos, man of the country, made to fight with the
animals, without think twice, took the stick (that he
had behind the door) and after say to the dog, "go
away from there!", and seeing that the dog continued
snoring he began to hit him with the stick. But the Valiente
was
not frightened. To each hit of stick that the man gave him the
animal backed down a step, but without let snore. In
this manner were man and dog until the side of the road that was far about thirty or forty meters of the kitchen.
Once and seeing the human that he had won the match to
the dog, he snapped the fingers and spoke him in
reconciliator tone. Immediately the dog changed
expression, and changing of attitude follow him so happy as if there nothing had happened.
This story seems me that perfectly
describes the temper of the Presa Canario Dog, of the old
one. It was a rustic dog, made by robust men for hard
works. Occur these characteristics in the dogs of presa
that grow up, by means of crossings, in our days? In most
of the units it seems me that no. I had trained some
of these new presas and they do not respond, that is the
truth and not another one, to those characteristics that
as much distinguished the old presas. And it has an
explanation. The canine breeds, in their majority, grow
up today with aim to the commerce. They appear at the shows to compete in beauty, and in the measurement
that the displayed units are beautiful they quote.
We live in a society of capricious,
fashions, uselessness, consumption by comsume. We buy
Dogs by the mere fact to have them, or by its company, or any other
reason, everything less by its utility. And
clear is that these dogs cannot (they do not have why) be
rustic, and in any case only in the appearance, but not
in the behavior. In this society the dogs must be
sociable, delicate, tame, feminine.
At the shows
the dogs must know how to behave. One of the ways, perhaps
the only one, so that the dogs learn to be in these
social-economics events is that they loss determination,
energy, force, temperament.
Product of these dog´s shows are
most of the units that are being used to recreate the
Presa Canario Dog. And in addition, to aggravate more this
reality, the quality of the temperament is not
considered. With the form a good part of the liking is
satiated. Thus we find, thing impensable in the old
Presa CanarioDog, that a simple Majorero dog gives
him "leña al derecho y al revés" (a drubbing)
to those actual crossed, to which the members of the
Spanish Club of the Presa Canario call presas canarios.
It is true that in appearance some
of the described presas (Bulldog, Bullmastiff, Dogo of
Bordeaux, etc.) are frightful, but that, only in
appearance.
And these presas canarios (which while I prefer to call crossed
due they are not
another thing) appear (they display them) with all the
endorsement of the Spanish Club of the Presa Canario in
the official or nonofficials canine exhibitions. And why
they appear? I heard speak in those exhibitions to
respresentative people of the cinófilo world (judges)
about the ability to work of the presa canario, his
strong temperament, his courage, his clutch in the fight
with others congeners, of his extraordinary condition for
the guard and the defense, etc. etc. But, they
demonstrate something those dogs in the shows? Have they seen sometimes, those representative personages
fighting, keeping, defending to some of those dogs?
Is more,
have saw them, in those tasks, the members of the
C.E.P.P.C.? If they excel or not in something of what
is mentioned nobody or very few they know/we knows. It
would be necessary to say, that all those virtues are supposed in them a
priori, like the courage to the soldiers.
The presa canario is taken to the
exhibitions so that the people can see them, so that the
representatives of the Spanish canine officiality see
them, so that the Real Sociedad Central Canina de España
recognizes them like a canary breed, and spanish by
extension.
This is not only pathetic, no, this
border in the mental derangement.
It is of alienated to try, at this
point, to sell cat by hare. It is of alienated to try to
sell the image of a canine breed, at the moment
nonexistent, to the canary people touching the keys of to
nationalistic sensitivity. To nobody that has two fingers
of forehead, a minimum of canine culture and sense of the
history, and a minimum of respect by the truth, is
happened to him to put in similar predicament.
Nobody can change the present and
passed reality. We can work for the reality that is
coming, nothing more. Thus, then, it will be the future
Presa Canario Dog similar to the one of the past, of
Spanish origin and not guanche like want
"Solidaridad Canaria", or of english origin, as
pretend the voluntarily little informed, or
interested, Mr. Martín Bethencourt, secretary in
functions of the Spanish Club of the Presa Canario? Time
will tell.
Published by the author in El Día the 21 November
1985
